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Suzuki Motorcycle India today launched its first sub-1000cc super-bike, GSX-S750, in the country priced at Rs 7.45 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). “We had made a commitment to launch several new and premium products every year for the Indian-market,” Suzuki Motorcycle India Managing Director Satoshi Uchida said in a statement. GSX-S750 is not just the first new offering from Suzuki for the new financial year, but is also our first-product in the sub-1000cc big-bike segment, he added. The model is powered by a 749cc four-cylinder fuel-injection engine mated to a six-speed gearbox. “The GSX-S750 has been designed to dominate, be it with its aggressive styling, comfortable ergonomics or the powerful engine,” Suzuki Motorcycle India Executive Vice President Sajeev Rajasekharan said. moneycontrol

The road into food retail business in India is no longer smooth for Amazon, as the government has directed the e-commerce giant not to share any equipment, machinery or warehouses from its current marketplace business for the planned venture, reported The Economic Times. In July last year, the US-based company received government approval to invest in building a full-fledged food retail business and sell food products through its wholly owned subsidiary in India. It had proposed to invest about USD 500 million in the country. Following this, the company was looking to launch its food retail business nationwide and has already started a pilot of it in Pune with restricted selection and coverage, a person familiar with the matter told ET. However, after the direction received, the company has now sought clarification from the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) whether it can share some of the warehouse staff, entry and exit doors at warehouses, barcode machines, trolli

Mumbai:  India might need 167 fighter jets worth more than Rs1 trillion, the order process for which could be completed in the next 12-18 months, a top executive at Mahindra Group said, as it prepares to bid for some of the military orders on the cards. The Anand Mahindra-led Mahindra group recently tied up with The Boeing Co. and state-controlled Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to build a new assembly line for manufacturing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets. “The government has already come out with tender process for 110 fighter jets, and navy also has requirement for another 57 jets. So total requirement appears to be 167 jets at this stage,” said S.P. Shukla, group president, aerospace, defence and steel, at Mahindra Group, and chairman, Mahindra Aerospace. “The government’s plans to place orders are likely to be valued over Rs100,000 crore (Rs1 trillion),” Shukla said, adding the supply of these fighter jets may be spread over three-seven years after the placement of orders, depending u

Planning a vacation this summer? If you’re excited about taking a train journ ey, you must know the new rules Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has introduced for booking railways tickets on its online portal. But, before that – link Aadhaar number with your IRCTC account. When IRCTC was launched in 2002, only 29 online tickets were booked on the first day. Today, more than 1.3 million online tickets are booked through IRCTC portal – www.irctc.co.in – the e-ticketing outlet of the national carrier. About 20 million people travel by Indian Railways every day. Here are some exciting changes Indian Railways has introduced for rail passengers who link their IRCTC account with Aadhaar: Now users are allowed to book up to 12 tickets in a month if users get themselves verified through their Aadhaar number along with at least one passenger also being verified through Aadhaar. No Aadhaar Verification required for booking up to 6 tickets in a month, as earlier. Steps to a

The Indian Railways’ plans to generate Rs 390 billion from non-fare sources over 10 years have become doubtful, with the national transporter withdrawing tenders for out-of-home (OOH) advertisements and advertisements on trains owing to a “low industry response” and “technical reasons”. OOH included station areas, overbridges, underbridges, level-crossing gates, railway colonies, workshops, production units, and railway land along tracks. These initiatives would have added at least Rs 82.5 billion to its revenues over 10 years. According to sources close to the development, the cancellation of the tenders came when the Railway Board withdrew the powers of awarding contracts from railway subsidiary RITES and gave them to railways zones. With this, the railways will go back to its practice of inviting tenders for “sundry” initiatives through the zonal railways. “This has led to stagnation in policies for at least two years, resulting in huge revenue losses to the railways. It may take a

New Delhi: Construction for India’s first high-speed train project, the 508-km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor, will begin in January 2019, said officials. They said that land acquisition will be completed by the end of this year and the mega project, costing Rs 1.08 lakh crore, will be completed by the end of 2022. Indian Railways will acquire around 1,400 hectares of linear land in Maharashtra and Gujarat at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, said Achal Khare, managing director, National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHRC), the implementing agency for the project, which will also be responsible for operating trains on high-speed corridors. The government has started getting funds from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the land acquisition has started in Mumbai. JICA is providing a soft loan of Rs 88,000 crore for the project for a period of 50 years at an annual interest rate of 0.1%. Once the bullet train project is operational, the journey between the t

NEW DELHI: By September, Delhi Metro will open two new corridors connecting Dilshad Garden to Ghaziabad and Dwarka to NoidaSector62. The one on the Blue Line would go ahead of Noida City Centre up to Electronic City, DMRC managing director Mangu Singh said. This would take metro connectivity to many far-flung Noida sectors like 34, 52, 59, 61 and 62. The corridor would also touch the Noida-Ghaziabad border on NH-24 where the last station—Noida Electronic City—is located. “The physical work on the corridor is complete except for two or three locations where there were some special requirements. We are hopeful that by September the corridor will be ready,” Singh told TOI. The much delayed Dilshad Garden to New Bus Stand (Ghaziabad) corridor is also expected to open in September, Singh said. The corridor would benefit those staying near GT Road and interior parts of the district. At present, Ghaziabad has only two stations, Kaushambi and Vaishali on the Blue Line. “Physical works, incl

NEW DELHI: The railways has maintained the best safety record in 2017-2018 fiscal in over five decades, according to official figures. As of March 30, 73 accidents were reported across the railway network, compared to 104 in the previous fiscal, the lowest in 57 years. “The main reason behind the improvement is track renewal, the railways carried out renewal of 4,405 km of old rails in 2017-2018. This is the highest ever progress of rail renewal and exceeds the target of 4,400 km kept for the year,” a senior official of the ministry said. In fact, the previous best track renewal was 4,175 km in 2004-2005, when the transporter was given a rehabilitation plan with a fund of Rs 17,000 crore. This fiscal has also recorded the longest ever distance travelled by trains. In 1960-61, trains collectively travelled just 388.1 million train km as compared to 1170.7 million train km in 2017-2018. Train kilometer is the unit of measure of distance which corresponds to the movement of a train ove

A shutdown, driverless diesel locomotive today rolled down the tracks before derailing at Anand Vihar railway station in Delhi, an official said, a week after 22 coaches of an express train travelled 10 km without its engine in Odisha. The incident happened at 14:33pm, when the diesel loco suddenly started rolling down the tracks at Anand Vihar station. The possible cause for the incident is the failure of the hand-brake, a Northern Railway spokesman said. “It rolled for about 40m and derailed at a point on the East end of the line by three wheels. All movements are safe and other train movements are normal. The driver has been suspended and an enquiry has been ordered,” the spokesman said. Hand-brake is applied from within the locomotive when it is shut down and “parked”. “There are dozens of locos that are shut down everyday and parked with their hand-brakes applied and no untoward incident happens if the handbrakes are gripping the wheels correctly,” an officer explained. On Apri

BALASORE: Six coal-laden wagons of a goods train travelled for 2 km without an engine here, an incident which comes a week after an express train in Titlagarh travelled for 10 kilometres without an engine. The incident occurred when six wagons of a goods train from Dhamara to Jamshedpur got detached from the rest of the train and travelled about 2 km, without an engine, between Khantapada and Bahanaga stations yesterday night, a railway official said. However, a mishap was averted and nobody was hurt as the incident was detected immediately and the railway officials acted quickly, he said. “The last six wagons got detached from the train due to snapping of coupling and some mechanical fault which was immediately resolved,” the Station Manager of Balasore Railway Station, Bhagabat Das, said. As a precautionary measure, movement of trains on the tracks was conrolled for around two hours. An engine was sent to Bahanaga railway station to bring the detached wagons and attach them to the

Of the 146 foreign arms vendors attending Defexpo 2018 in Chennai, Russian Helicopters, which builds the iconic, dual-rotor Kamov helicopters, is among the few with an assured major order. In 2015, on Vladimir Putin’s personal request, Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to buy 200 Kamov-226T utility helicopters for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and army without competitive tendering. Moscow and New Delhi have agreed that Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) would manufacture the Kamov-226T with technology transferred by Russian Helicopters. The two signed a shareholders agreement in October 2016, granting a 50.5 per cent majority stake for HAL, and 49.5 per cent for Russian Helicopters. Now Russian Helicopters is pitching to score another billion-dollar home run by winning the navy’s tender for 111 “naval utility helicopters” (NUH). With at least 140 Kamov-226T to be built in India (the other 60 are being supplied from Russia fully built), Russian Helicopters believes it can offer a compelling c

Mumbai:  Aerospace firm Boeing Co. on Thursday said it has entered into a partnership with state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd (MDS) for manufacturing the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet in India, the company said in a statement. “Our partnership with HAL and Mahindra will enable us to optimize the full potential of India’s public and private sector to deliver next-generation F/A-18 fighter capabilities,” Boeing India president Pratyush Kumar said at DefExpo 2018 in Chennai, adding, “together we can deliver an affordable, combat-proven fighter platform for India, while adding growth momentum to the Indian aerospace ecosystem with manufacturing, skill development, innovation and engineering, and job creation.” Boeing’s Make in India proposal involves building a new, state-of-the-art facility that can be used for programmes such as India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft policy, a note issued by the US firm said. livemint

New Delhi:  Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd (HMSI), the country’s second largest two-wheeler manufacturer, has earmarked Rs800 crore as capital expenditure for FY2019, which will mostly be used to upgrade existing offerings of the company to Bharat Stage VI (BS VI) emission norms. The current fiscal will see the launch of one new product and 18 refreshes of existing products. The announcement by HMSI is testament to the enormous task at hand for the auto industry—complying with the BS VI emission norms by April 2020. This is drawing huge investments from manufacturers across segments. Further, HMSI under president and chief executive Minoru Kato will look to shift some of its scooter customers to the Grazia and bring in new customers for its motorcycle segment through the X-Blade to reduce dependence on the Activa—the highest selling scooter in the country. “We will use this investment for the BS VI preparation. The model line-up needs to change. As a result of the BS VI n

NEW DELHI: Yamaha Motor India Group Thursday said it has installed 1100 KW roof top solar power plant at company’s manufacturing facility in Chennai. With this new installation, the total solar capacity of Yamaha’s Chennai plant has increased to 1450 KW. The company has plans to increase the total rooftop solarcapacity to 3500 KW by the end of this year. The new rooftop installation would reduce CO2 emission to the extent of 1600 tons/year. Yamaha has partnered with Mahindra Susten for the installation of these Rooftop Solar panels. Riuji Kawashima, Deputy Managing Director, India Yamaha Motor, said, “The installation of the solar power project at our plants further reinstates our commitment towards building an energy saving factory that is friendly to people and the global environment. We also would like to highlight that our Chennai factory is the least CO2 emission factory among the Yamaha Motor Group Companies around the world.”  economictimes Related posts: 60% car buy

The financial year 2017-18 was the best for Indian Railways in terms of safety in the last 35 years, several media outlets reported recently. The Indian Railways recorded 73 accidents in FY18 in comparison to 104 in FY17. This was the first time in years that the accidents did not cross 100, claimed media reports. Earlier this week, Rajen Gohain, Minister of state for Railways, also informed the Lok Sabha about the security measures taken by Indian Railways for the safety of passengers. The following steps have been taken by the Railways to provide security to passengers:  1. On vulnerable and identified routes/sections, 2,500 trains are escorted by Railway Protection Force (RPF) daily, in addition to 2,200 trains escorted by Government Railway Police (GRP) of different states daily, said a press release issued by Press Information Bureau (PIB). 2. Security helpline number 182 has been made operational over Indian Railways for security related assistance to passengers in distress, the

Indian Railways’ Deccan Odyssey is a special luxury train based on the model of ‘Palace on Wheels’ which was inaugurated to boost tourism on the Maharashtra route, according to the official website- deccanodyssey.india.com. It is India’s first luxury train which is a joint venture of the Maharashtra Government and the Ministry of Railways. According to Indian Railways, Deccan Odyssey trains aim to be a complete 5-star hotel on wheels, with restaurants, bar, sauna, health spa and other amenities on board. 10 things to know about Indian Railways’ luxurious Deccan Odyssey trains: 1. Deccan Odyssey trains started its maiden journey on January 16, 2004. 2. Deccan Odyssey trains comprises of 21 luxuriously appointed coaches. Out of these 21 coaches, 11 accommodate guests and the rest are used for different purposes such as dining, lounge, conference car and health spa. 3. The Deccan Odyssey offers 6 different itineraries consisting of 8 days and 7 nights.  4. Each coach of the Deccan Ody

The first Government of India bond auction for 2018-19 sailed through on Friday, and indications are investor appetite is likely to remain healthy. Bond yields are expected to remain benign, and could slide close to 7 per cent in the near term. Market players participated strongly. The reissuance of 10-year paper (7.17 per cent for G-secs maturing in 2028), amounting to Rs 30 billion, received bids of over Rs 120 billion. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which conducted the auction, had set the cut-off yield at about 7.15 per cent. Lower market borrowings by the government in the first half of 2018-19 set the positive tone, bond dealers and economists said. The increase in the investment limit in bonds by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) also aided sentiment. Besides, the RBI’s decision to permit banks to spread provisions for mark-to-market (MTM) losses on investments incurred in the third and fourth quarters of 2017-18 over four quarters gave room to banks to participate in bond

India’s central bank raised limits for overseas investors that could lure $16 billion of additional funds into the nation’s sovereign as well as corporate debt. Foreign investors will be allowed to increase holdings of a sovereign, state and corporate bonds by Rs 1.04 trillion ($16 billion) in the fiscal year to March 2019. Overseas investors can boost holding of central government securities by 0.5 percentage points a year, taking the limit to 5.5 per cent in fiscal year to March 2019 and to 6 per cent in the following 12 month period, the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement on Friday. The central bank set 9 per cent as the limit for foreign investors to own in debt sold by Indian companies. In the past two weeks, the government has trimmed its fiscal first-half borrowing plans to reduce debt supply, and the central bank allowed lenders to spread out bond-trading losses to spur demand. The steps cooled bond yields, which had reached a two-year high to threaten the borrowing pla

Reserve Bank of India has raised the investment limit for foreign portfolio investors (FPI) in Central government securities by 0.5 percent to 5.5 percent of outstanding stock of securities in 2018-19 and 6 percent of outstanding stock of securities in 2019-20. Market experts said that an increase is necessary to make up for a reduction in demand from domestic banks. Karthik Srinivasan, Senior Vice President of ICRA said, “The hike is lower than the market had expected but this will increase some more appetite by foreign investors to buy G-secs and hence help lower bond yields, maybe by 4-5 basis points.” On Friday, the 10-year government securities or government bonds saw yields ending trade at 7.17 percent. The new limits will be applicable with immediate effect, the central bank said. In a report dated March 15, research firm Nomura said that a 1 percent increase in the FPI cap, from 5 to 6 percent would increase the limit by Rs 80,000 crore in absolute terms. In 2017-18, the total

The Defence Ministry has identified four strategic rail lines along the India-China border, but the final location surveys are still pending, the government informed the Parliament today. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said that the four strategic lines along the India-China border are — Missamari-Tenga-Tawang (378 km), Bilaspur-Manali-Leh (498 km), Pasighat-Tezu-Rupai (227 km) and North Lakhimpur-Bame-Silapathar (249 km). “Ministry of Defence has provided funds to Ministry of Railways for carrying out final location surveys (FLS) of these four identified strategic lines and Ministry of Railways has taken up these FLS. “The undulating terrain of young Himalayas and difficult geological conditions are affecting the pace of survey undertaken,” Gohain said. He also said that all government agencies working in the area and having specialisation in survey in these difficult geographical areas are meeting regularly for early co

Banks and non-banking finance companies have been the primary source of funding for renewable energy. However, banks have limited appetite for a major role as providers of long term debt for renewable energy projects as they are weighed down by the risk of an asset-liability mismatch. The long-term funds available with insurance and pension funds in India are not adequately channelised to meet the debt requirement of the renewable energy sector due to regulatory restrictions. Thus, the existing traditional financing sources are not sufficient to support capacity addition, and given the huge financial requirement of the renewable energy sector, there is a dire need to identify alternate sources to supplement and widen the channels of renewable sector funding. The introduction of Green Bonds will resolve the issue of funding, which is the reason for delay in these ‘green’ projects, in the evolving renewable energy sector. Green bonds are debt instruments that raise money to fund clean e